Josef held the note containing John's address in his hand. Rayala swore as she worked at lighting the fireplace. The inn's great room was now empty save for the four of them.

"One second and I'll grab your soup," Rayala said as she dipped a candle's flame into a small copse of kindling.

Josef turned to Claudius. "I don't know if we can stay in Gangdrup any longer. 5000 gold chunks? That's almost ten times the previous bounty."

Rayala raised her head from the fireplace. Flames crackled behind her. "You should know there's a daily coach that bounces out of here just after the morning horn."

"There's my ticket," said Malark, hobbling over to a table near the fire and sitting down. Rayala gave him directions over her shoulder as she stacked on larger pieces of wood.

She then stood up and walked back towards the kitchen, but halfway there the door to The Backwards Flow burst open.

Josef was in the process of sitting down but immediately he sprang upwards and spun the chair in front of himself. He then raised his short sword in a line towards the door and at the three men who pushed themselves through, their polearms glittering in the candlelight.

"Goo-drinker!" one shouted, banging the butt of his polearm against the inn floor.

"Yes?" Josef said slowly. All three were dressed in the same brown coloured-cloth as the council members had been when they delivered their missive the previous day.

Josef swallowed as he watched Claudius fumble in his rucksack for his slingshot. Malark remained seated.

The middle member of the trio stepped forward. His lower slip was cut and scared, his head shaven. "You are now under the protection of the Gangdrup City Guard on the express order of Tanyel Yarl and the Gangdrup Council."

"Under protection?" Josef said, looking at their polearms. "Or do you mean under arrest?"

"You're free to move around Gangdrup as you so please," explained the guard with the split lip.

"But we can't leave?"

The guard nodded. He reached into his side pouch and extended out his hand. "Here," he said gruffly. "My name is Splio and my daughter baked you cookies."

Josef looked at Malark, who wiped his brow, and then to Claudius, who'd paused wrangling through his rucksack to stare at Josef and mouth: what in the name of the Lush Heap?

Josef lowered his sword, stared at the cookie. "What proof do you have that you're actually with the city guard?"

Splio turned and waved at Rayala as she returned from the kitchen with two bowls of soup.

She nodded at him and spoke as she walked: "Oh they're city guard alright. They've hauled more disorderly patrons from The Backwards Flow than there are gujai in the Ba'ha Grotto sewers."

Splio grinned and thanked Rayala.

Josef pushed aside the chair he'd swivelled in front of himself and strode towards the guard. He nicked the cookie from the Splio's hand and sniffed it.

"Cinnamon and juiced fern," said Splio.

"Josef, you don't have to eat every—" Claudius began to say, but Josef had already taken his first nibble.

Josef raised the cookie in the air. "Scrumptious. Truly this is great. Is this city guard policy to always bribe their prisoners?"

Splio's brow wrinkled at Josef's use of the word 'prisoners', but he managed to laugh nevertheless. "It's my daughter's policy, inflicted upon me last night when I told her I'd be guarding the goo-drinker. She's heard all the stories…"

One of the other guards coughed and Splio straightened.

"Well it appears I have no choice but to thank you for your protection," Josef said as he took another bit from the cinnamon-fern cookie. "But let me tell you," he continued while shaking the remainder of the cookie in the air as crumbs fell to the floor, "that Sea Gwell over there is a nimble one. He's been training me as well. We might just give you the slip!"

"I would advise against it," Splio said without a smile. "You have a bounty on your head. A significant one at that."

"And yet we can't leave to escape the danger?"

"The council has decreed as such, yes," Splio said carefully.

Claudius yelled from the table over by the fire, "They're just automatons, Josef! They'll just keep saying the same thing over and over again. Come and eat."

Josef glanced at Splio. The guard was obviously quite wounded by Claudius's remark.

Josef took the last bite of the cookie, sighed, and then returned to Claudius and Malark, both of whom had already vanquished a good portion of their sewerbreeze soup. He sat down as Rayala brought out his bowl and a loaf of bread.

Josef thanked her a dug in. He eyed the guards as they remained positioned by the door and as they too watched him.

"Well if you're trapped in Gangdrup, at least you'll have some protection," Malark said, scraping the bottom of his soup bowl.

Josef nodded in agreement but Claudius pressed his teal forefinger into the tabletop. "Protection, yes. But at what cost? Spying on us for the Gangdrup Council?" Claudius looked over his shoulder and made a face at the guards. "You better believe it. They know the legends about goo-drinkers. They'll get their use out of our Josef here, that's for sure."

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"Perhaps you should've went to Bouldershore," Malark offered.

"Not a chance," Claudius said, finishing his soup as well. "Josef would've never made it."

But Malark shrugged. "Who knows. If what Mal says is true, that he does indeed have a different goo flowing in his system…"

Suddenly Josef dropped his spoon back into his bowl. He had an idea. "Malark, who was in charge of crafting the goo before you came on board at The Ba'ha Company?"

Malark scratched his head. "That really brings me back, Josef…we had to bring it in, I believe. We had neither the capacity nor the skill to make it ourselves. Eventually, we did start making it on our own though. Now when was that…"

"Was it before I arrived at the Ba'ha Grotto?"

Malark was deep in thought, his right hand smoothed down one of his bushy eyebrows. "It was all so long ago, Josef. I can't be sure. The Goo-master was a man named Gibbles. He was very traditional. I remember him screaming his lungs out at an apprentice when she used a metal spoon instead of a wooden spoon."

"He doesn't sound like the innovating type," Claudius added.

"Exactly," replied Malark, but then his eyes brightened. "There is one place you could look."

"Where?" Josef said immediately, but then he wilted as he sensed what Malark was going to say.

"Your log book."

Claudius smacked his webbed hand against his forehead. "I saw it there, sitting next to his goo-sac, but I didn't think to take it. Izzblum's says nothing about the necessity of having the log book."

"Well that makes sense," Malark continued. "As you well know, Claudius, the log book can make for some very dry reading. But, as you also know, a great many details are stored therein. Perhaps even a hint as to who changed the recipe for Josef's goo-sac."

"Would someone actually write that in there, though?" Josef asked. "It sounds like a fairly devious thing to do from what you've told me."

"You're most likely correct, Josef. But there still may be a hint. I don't know how you'd get it though. They may have already confiscated it."

"Kipfish probably devours it as bedside reading material," Claudius said, shuddering.

"Or it's still sitting next to my goo-sac," Josef opined.

Claudius sighed and slapped his forehead. "Dammit, Malark! What have you done?" Claudius then turned to Josef and said one word: "No."

But Josef could barely contain his energy, he talked between spoonfuls of soup: "I remember what Vaxsha said last night. I need to follow my snout! Also, even Izzblum's says that any particularities must be accounted for when the filtering process is taking place."

Claudius folded his webbed hands on the table. "What are you trying to say, Josef?"

"I'm scared, Claudius. I'm scared I won't survive if I don't learn more about this strange goo in my system. The crows feared to ratify me — Mal did and it almost killed her…"

"The risk just isn't worth it," Claudius said, looking at Malark and waiting for him to agree.

Malark eventually nodded his head as well. "The Sea Gwell makes a point," he said stiffly.

"I think we need to consider it" Josef said as he finished eating the soup and bread. He pushed the bowl to the center of the table. "Sometimes you have to go backward to go forward."

Claudius heaved out a wave of laughter as he pointed at Josef. "Oh no, he's starting to throw aphorisms at us now." He banged his fist on the table and laughed more. "Someone save us!"

Josef stood to his feet but Claudius waved him back down, still laughing.

"No point in rushing off," Claudius said, composing himself. "We have protection now. Also I wanted to take some time to teach you a jinto."

Malark shifted his chair closer to the fire, warming his back. "You know of jintos, Claudius?"

"Izzblum's has a very short section devoted to them."

A few customers crept through the inn's door and walked over to a table. The guards let them pass, but not before first apprising themselves of the new arrivals. They seemed to be merchants and the guards seemed to recognize them. Rayala brought them bowls of soup right away.

Josef turned back to Claudius. "What is a jinto? I heard you mention them last night?"

"Jintos are named after their popularizer — Jane Jinto. More than anyone she was responsible for bringing The Sapgum Ordinances into wide circulation. There's a lot to them, but what's useful for you right now is that jintos are the basic manoeuvres in that particular system."

"They're also very accessible," added Malark. "I've dabbled in a few myself with moderate success. Got a bit carried away once and had to dial things back, but we don't need to get into that."

"I'm all ears," Josef said, straightening up in his chair.

Claudius looked to Malark. "How much deep do you think I should go?"

"Let's see what he can handle," said Malark, laughing. "I think he'll be fine."

Claudius gave a quick smile. "Alright! I've never done this before but here we go. I feel like I should almost limber up." Claudius then cleared his throat. "The first thing you need to know is that you've actually already been taping into a jinto-like energy."

"How so?"

"Remember how I had you picture your goo-sac back when your neocortex was still booting back up?"

"That was a jinto?"

"No. But it was jinto-like. Within The Sapgum Ordinances, the jintos are distinguished from more advanced manoeuvres through three key ingredients: first, their simplicity; second, their one-pointedness; and lastly, their visual component."

Claudius waved three fingers in his face. "Jintos make a lot more sense if you can remember those. But these are just ideas, they aren't the actual experience, as you shall soon see."

Josef did his best to commit them to memory: Simplicity. One-pointedness. Visual Component.

"I think I'm following so far," he replied.

"Excellent," cooed Claudius. "Now I think one of the most basic and also one of the most crucial jintos for you to learn is called Raised Rain. It's quite simple and once you get good at it you can do it while moving—"

Malark interrupted Claudius. "Aren't you going to tell him—"

"Tell me what?" Josef asked.

"I'll get to it, I'll get to it, just hold on," Claudius said raising his hands. "So the first thing you need to do Josef is utterly relax. Don't even try a jinto unless you're moving in the direction of ease."

Josef took a deep breath and let muscles relax, his feet fall to the floor.

"Perfect. Wonderful. Eyes closed works best for beginners. Now this is the trickiest part, at least when you're just starting out. I'm going to show you the gateway. Before we can actually partake in a jinto we need gain passage."

"Show me the gateway?" Josef's asked. His eyes were closed but still he made a face. "I'm lost, Claudius. Do you want me to open my eyes?"

"Nope, just keep relaxing and I want you to incline your mind in my direction. This is just how it works."

"Incline? Your direction?" Josef felt himself struggling to make sense of Claudius's instructions. His directions prior to this had been crystal clear, but now he felt himself more than a bit adrift.

"It's fine, Josef. This is confusing for everyone."

But then Josef stammered out. "I see it! I see it. It's a tree."

"Yes!" Claudius said excitedly, "incline yourself towards it."

Josef could see within the space of his mind a large tree with a full crown of leaves. He hadn't imagined it, not willingly. It had simply appeared and now he was moving closer and closer to it.

He heard Malark whisper, "He's actually doing it."

Claudius's voice had risen. The Sea Gwell could barely contain his excitement. "Yes, just a bit closer Josef. The tree will unfold its command naturally for you."

Claudius was right. The closer Josef felt himself coming towards the tree, the more he had the desire to touch its bark.

He was a foot away.

He laid his cheek against its rippled tree-skin and breathed as the tree itself began to grow soft.